Wyoming Greater Sage-Grouse RMP/LRMP Amendments

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wyoming State Office and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) have initiated a planning effort to prepare Resource Management Plan (RMP) and Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) amendments for the Casper, Green River, Kemmerer, Newcastle, Pinedale, and Rawlins RMPs; and the Medicine Bow National Forest (MBNF), Bridger-Teton National Forest (BTNF), and Thunder Basin National Grassland (TBNG) LRMPs.

The BLM and USFS intend to evaluate the adequacy of Greater Sage-Grouse conservation measures in the RMPs and LRMPs and consider conservation measures, as appropriate, in proposed RMP and selected LRMP amendments and/or revisions throughout the range of the Greater Sage-Grouse. Based on ongoing threats to the Greater Sage-Grouse and its habitat throughout the West, as well as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2015 deadline for making a decision whether to list the species under the Endangered Species Act, the BLM and the USFS aim to incorporate consistent objectives and conservation measures into relevant RMPs and LRMPs by September 2014. As a result, the accompanying environmental reviews will be conducted under expedited timeframes The RMP/LRMP amendments will also revise Greater Sage-Grouse and sagebrush management direction in the existing plans to incorporate policy from BLM Wyoming’s Instruction Memorandum (IM) 2010-012 and BLM IM 2012-043. The RMP decisions to be amended are critical in nature; and by law, all BLM actions, authorizations, and subsequent decisions must be in conformance with the RMP; the same is true for the USFS and their LRMPs.

The planning area encompasses approximately 11 million acres of public land administered by the BLM, 600,000 acres of public land administered by the USFS, and 20 million acres of Federal mineral estate in Albany, Campbell, Carbon, Converse, Crook, Fremont, Goshen, Laramie, Lincoln, Natrona, Niobrara, Platte, Sublette, Sweetwater, Teton, Uinta, and Weston counties in Wyoming. The decisions resulting from the RMP/LRMP amendments will only apply to BLM- and USFS-administered public lands within the planning area.

The overall objective of the Wyoming Greater Sage-Grouse RMP/LRMP Amendments planning effort is to provide a collaborative planning process for amending the management decisions of the existing six RMPs and three LRMPs. The final Approved RMP/LRMP Amendments will identify desired outcomes, identify future conditions to be maintained or achieved, and specify uses or resource allocations that are allowable, restricted, or prohibited, including any restrictions needed to meet desired outcomes.

Along with the RMPs/LRMPs, an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will be developed as part of the planning process to understand the effects of land management actions on resources and resource uses within the six BLM field offices and three USFS planning units. An integral component of the RMP/LRMP amendments is public involvement. Throughout the planning process, the public will have opportunities to participate and share their insights and comments.

This website provides the latest information on the development of the Wyoming Greater Sage-Grouse Management RMP/LRMP Amendments and EIS. Throughout the planning process, this website will be updated to include background documents, maps, meeting announcements, published bulletins, and other documents.